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Tennessee Fall Invite
Lady Vols Improve on Day 2 of Fall Invite
November 01, 2014 | Women's Tennis
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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- The Lady Vols came out strong in day two of the annual Tennessee Fall Invitational against East Tennessee State in doubles and Ohio State in singles.
Starting with doubles, Tennessee decided to switch up the teams. With a couple of players out or recovering from injury, senior Joanna Henderson and sophomore Brittany Lindl teamed up for the first time this season, and sophomores Victoria Olivarez and Laurence Guevremont played together for the first time in their careers.
"We are kind of shorthanded right now," Head Coach Mike Patrick said. "We are just trying to look at different combinations and see what kind of energy we can get. We will have people coming back in January, so right now is just practice and getting better."
Despite the switch in partners, both teams played well. Henderson and Lindl wasted no time in their match as they cruised to an 8-0 victory. The other doubles match was not as easy of a win.
Olivarez and Guevremont led most of the match but could never pull away. Guevremont served for match with a 7-6 lead. With a 40-30 match point lead, she caused ETSU's Jayde Viccars to hit the ball out to give Tennessee the match and 2-0 sweep in doubles.
Looking to bounce back in singles, the Lady Vols quickly found themselves going into super tiebreakers to determine the winner of the matches.
First was Olivarez who moved to the No. 2 seed today for the Lady Vols. She split sets with Ohio State's Sandy Niehaus. After taking a commanding 9-3 lead, she caused an error to win the match.
Henderson played an extremely close match with Miho Kowase that went into a tiebreaker at 6-6 in the second set. She lost the tiebreaker but still had a chance to win the match in the super tiebreaker. She was tied at 7-7 and finished the match by scoring three straight points to win the match and also put herself into position to defend her title as tournament champion from last year.
Guevremont also played in a super tiebreaker, but she fell short after taking the first set in a tiebreaker but losing the next two. Lindl and Tavares both fell in two sets to their opponents.
"I think we were a little better today than we were yesterday," Patrick said on his team's performance. "This format comes down to just a few points here or there. I think that is exciting but tougher in some aspects. We are still learning."
Matches will begin at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow but will be played at Knoxville Racquet Club instead of Goodfriend Tennis Center. The Lady Vols will face Kentucky in doubles at 11:00 a.m. and ETSU in singles at 12:00 p.m.
Tennessee Fall Invitational
Saturday Results
Tennessee vs. Ohio State Singles
1. Henderson (UT) def. Kowase (OSU), 6-3, 6-7, 1-0 (7)
2. Olivarez (UT) def. Niehaus (OSU), 7-5, 3-6, 1-0 (4)
3. Angeles-Paz (OSU) def. Guevremont (UT), 6-7, 6-1, 1-0 (4)
4. Sneed (OSU) def. Lindl (UT), 6-2, 6-4
5. Sanford (OSU) def. Tavares (UT), 6-1, 7-5
Tennessee vs. ETSU Doubles
1. Henderson/Lindl (UT) def. Choo/Markesini (ETSU), 8-0
2. Olivarez/Guevremont (UT) def. Viccars/Gerbasi (ETSU), 8-6
